Year: 2010

French Armed Forces Chief of Staff Agrees With Captain Kirk

1 Comment

You can find the full episode, Taste of Armegeddon, on Youtube, but here is Seth MacFarlane doing William Shatner

In a speech, he is suggesting that the extensive use of remotely controlled vehicles in the pursuit of war creates a sanitized war that could become immoral:

Admiral Edouard Guillaud, the French armed forces chief of staff, warned his distinguished audience at the Summer Defense University on September 14 that “there needs to be a fundamental reflection on the idea that there can be zero deaths in war.” Speaking in measured tones Guillaud, who could easily pass for a brilliant university professor, questioned the increasing use of armed unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in Afghanistan. “War becomes banal when the aggressor runs no risks,” he said adding that “the growth in technology must slow down because man must be able to master it.” He stressed that this issue of man mastering technology or allowing himself to become a slave to it “is a real question.” He said “this is an ethical question which will eventually lead to some form of legislation.”

It does sound a lot like:

“Death… destruction, disease, horror, that’s what war is all about. That’s what makes it a thing to be avoided. You’ve made it neat and painless. So neat and painless, you’ve had no reason to stop it. And you’ve had it for over five hundred years. Since it seems to be the only way I can save my crew, and my ship, I’m going to end it for you. One way, or another.”

Obviously, it’s not immoral to make war in a manner that minimizes casualties, but it’s equally obvious that if the technology results in making war that one would not otherwise make, then there needs to be some real discussion of the what the idea of remote control war, run by remote control, makes war too much of a throw away decision.

Stewart on the Republican Pledge

No Comments

Why do I even bother blogging, when all I need to do is point you to Jon Stewart monologues:

Just to get this straight: Two years ago America broke up with you because you had badly mistreated her. And so you disappear, do some soul searching, get your head together. And you come back rapping on our door, hat in hand, and you say: ‘Baby, I know you left me, but if we get back together, I pledge to you, I promise you, I will still try to f%$#k your sister. Every chance I get. It’s who I am.’

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!!

No Comments

And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. Haven Trust Bank Florida, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl
  2. North County Bank, Arlington, WA

Full FDIC list

It’s a 2 closure Friday again for banks, which these days qualifies as low key, but the credit union world was far more active, with NCUA taking 3 wholesale credit unions into receivership today, they are not showing up on the full NCUA list, which only covers retail institutions:

Nearly two years after Wall Street’s giants were rescued by the federal government, regulators on Friday took over three financial institutions that provide the underpinning for hundreds of the nation’s credit unions.

The three entities, known as wholesale credit unions and located in Connecticut, Illinois and Texas, were seized by regulators from the National Credit Union Administration, which supervises about 7,500 credit unions that provide basic banking services to millions of Americans. Most of those customers are linked to credit unions through their employers or through membership organizations.

Although the overwhelming majority of those credit unions are financially sound, some of the wholesale entities behind them have been hobbled by losses on subprime mortgage bonds and other complex investments. Of the 27 wholesale credit unions operating in the United States, five have been seized by regulators over the last 18 months.

…………

…Wholesale credit unions provide payment clearing and investment services to retail credit unions. They also give the retail credit unions a place to put their cash.

So there have been 14 retail credit unions closed, and 3, wholesale ones.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):

I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I’m keeping it here for historical purposes.

Number 7 on he List of Things That I Really Did Not Want to Know

No Comments
Click for full size

Ewwwww! Both the Pill and the Smile

It appears that members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, New York are using anal caffeine suppositories to deal with withdrawal from go juice:

Jews throughout Williamsburg snapped up caffeine suppositories today, hours before the start of the Yom Kippur fast that would deprive them of the jolt — and hunger suppression — that coffee typically provides.

The day-long fast is the centerpiece of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar — but some religious Jews see a Talmudic loophole that allows them to ingest their daily dose of caffeine, albeit through a different orifice.

“It helps — you know, it’s hard to concentrate when you’re fasting and also addicted to caffeine,” said Baruch Herzfeld, an Orthodox Jew who owns a bike store in Williamsburg. “Some take it before sundown, but most take it throughout their fasting. These guys love a good loophole.”

You know, tapering off over the few weeks before is both more in keeping with the spirit Halacha.*

*Jewish Law.

This Episode of Sesame Street Was Brought To You By the Letter “T” and the Number 2

No Comments

As in 2 Tits are 2Much:

In circumstances George Stephanopoulos probably never imagined when he gave up a hands-on role in politics to become a broadcaster, two fuzzy, nonhuman members of the “Sesame Street” cast joined him Friday morning on “Good Morning America,” along with that PBS children’s show’s executive producer, Carol-Lynn Parente, to discuss the recent decision at “Sesame Street” to pull a music video featuring the pop singer Katy Perry.

On Thursday, Sesame Workshop, which produces “Sesame Street,” said it would not broadcast a segment planned for the show’s coming season in which Ms. Perry performs a version of her song “Hot ‘N Cold” with Elmo and is seen wearing a low-cut dress.

In her “Good Morning America” interview, Ms. Parente told Mr. Stephanopoulos she was surprised at the volume of disapproving responses the video had generated when it was posted on YouTube earlier in the week.

It appears that some parents are up in arms about Katy Perry’s breasts, because her dress shows a bit of cleavage.

It’s actually fine to my mind, but I’m thinking that if the parents are this freaked out over this, they are going to be raising some sexually repressed kids who will likely be very bad in bed.

Video follows, though the comments at Youtube are prize:

White Spaces Passes FCC

No Comments

White Spaces at a Glance:
“A” can use 400 MHz without interfering with anyone

Which means that it’s now official, and any number of high speed wireless devices will be able to operate without a license in the spaces between TV channels:

The Federal Communications Commission today unanimously approved new rules for the use of unlicensed white space spectrum in a move that could pave the way for more unused wireless spectrum to be released in the future.

White space is unused spectrum that sits between TV channels. The 300MHz to 400MHz of unused spectrum is considered prime spectrum for offering wireless broadband services because it can travel long distances and penetrate through walls. The FCC unanimously agreed in November 2008 to open up this spectrum for unlicensed use. Even so, technical issues to allow device makers and service providers to use the spectrum still need to be worked out.

(emphasis mine)

The technical issues are a big deal, because, as the redoubtable Harold Feld notes, the devil is really in the details here, and the incumbent wireless providers want to require that devices ping themselves to death:

Right now, the rules require a Mode 2 (the ones that access the database directly) to ping the database every 24 hours. Mode 1 devices “listen” to Mode 2, according to the 2008 Order (which I understand means “get told when an actual change occurs). The broadcasters want the Mode 1 devices to ping the Mode 2s every 60 seconds and want Mode 2 to ping the database every 15 minutes, if not more frequently. Since television broadcast towers are big stationary things, not Ents marching on Isengard, one may ask why devices need to check more than once a day. In response, broadcasters explain that if some day some news team somewhere they might possibly be running down the street after some hot news lead if they ran into someone using a smart phone with white spaces capability it might, possibly, cause some sort of interference with the mobile news crew’s wireless microphone system.

At this time, it appears that they did not go with the ping of death regulations, nor did they require “Sense and Avoid” technology, which is purported to be both expensive and technically challenging.

One of the big things here is the geographical database: If the TV stations start making bogus claims of interference, we may end up with a situation where the coverage will be limited to remote rural areas.

Cowardly Conservadems Cause Tax Cut Catastrophe

No Comments

What Cee Lo Green Said (NSFW)

So, put a fork in it, the Democrats won’t be voting on middle class tax cuts, because the conservadems are unwilling to support the idea:

Obama wanted a vote on his proposed extension of some of the tax cuts before lawmakers returned to the campaign trail for the November 2 elections, in part to reinforce Democratic support for pocketbook issues.

Democratic strategists have been divided over whether it’s politically beneficial to push for a vote on the tax cuts now, citing their candidates from conservative states in tough re-election battles who would have to defend the resulting increase in the tax rate on wealthy Americans to previous levels.

Of course, voting on this would have put the Republicans on the defensive, by forcing them to vote against middle class tax cuts, the the conservadem/Blue Dog types are so terrified of Republicans that they are shooting themselves in the foot.

Bad policy and bad politics.

Truth be told, I’m for letting it all expire, and then increasing taxes on the very rich (94% sounds good), but still it is remarkably how Dems can pull defeat from the jaws of victory.

Take it away Cee Lo.

Economics Update

No Comments

It’s jobless Thursday, and initial unemployment claims are up again, t0 465,000, with the 4-week moving average falling yp 463,250 from 466,500, continuing claims falling by 48,000 to 4.49 million, and emergency claims rising by 208,000 to 5.17 million.

All in all, not a pretty picture, and neither are home sales, notwithstanding the press noting how much better August was than July, because up 7.6% from July means less than down 19% from August 2009.

In the business world, Blockbuster video filed for bankruptcy, which is not a surprise, it’s been expected for months, but it’s still the end of an era.

The Republican Senate Caucus Blinks

No Comments

After announcing her write in bid for the Alaska Senate, the Senate Republican caucus threatened to yank Lisa Murkowski’s position as rinking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but they have now backed away from that:

In a surprise move, Senate Republicans did not vote to drop one of their own, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Senator Murkowski’s decision to mount a write-in campaign after losing her primary to “tea party” backed attorney Joe Miller angered many of her Senate colleagues. Even a failed bid risks splitting the Republican vote in Alaska, giving Democrats an unexpected pickup and curbing GOP prospects for taking back the Senate.

On Wednesday, the caucus did replace Murkowski with Sen. John Barrasso (R) of Wyoming as vice chair of the Republican Conference – the policy wing of Senate Republicans – but it declined to go further.

So they went with a largely symbolic slap on the wrist, because losing her ranking status would have made it far more difficult for her to campaign in Alaska on the political currency of that realm, pork barrel spending.

I don’t know what went on behind closed doors, 24 hours ago her being stripped of her position was thought to be a done deal.

Jon Stewart Answers the Questions that Need to Be Answered

No Comments

We Have Found Obama’s Kryptonite

At a CNBC town hall, hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci asks Barack Obama, “When are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Steet piñata?

Well, Jon Stewart has the answer:

How long will we on Wall Street be hit like a piñata with a stick????

How about until the f%$#ing candy comes out!

How about that!

That’s how piñatas work!

…………

What you call a stick on Wall Street? I guess Amercans call a Trillion dollar bailout of your industry.

…………

Until your paper mâché bellies are no longer stuffed with government candy, walk it off!

Jon Stewart is not a man I ever want angry with me.

Senators Ask the Right Question

No Comments

And the question is, “why aren’t the people who broke banking and our economy going to jail?”

Senators pressed investigators on a lack of prosecutions of top Wall Street executives in the wake of the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“I will say right now that I’m frustrated,” Sen. Edward Kaufman, a Delaware Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said on Wednesday.

“We have seen very little in the way of senior officer or boardroom-level prosecutions of the people on Wall Street who brought this country to the brink of financial ruin. Why is that?”

The reason that there have been no prosecutions is because the the Cossacks work for the Czar, and the Czar, Obama, does not want the prosecutions, and instead wants to “look forward.”

The technical term for this is “cowardice reinforcing rewards for moral hazard.”

This Isn’t Just Because Heath Shuler has Always Been an Over Paid Under-Performing Punk*

No Comments

But I really want every seat lost by the Dems this election cycle to come from the Blue Dog Democrats.

The Blue Dogs and other conservative are trying to prevent a vote on extending the tax breaks for people making less than $¼ million a year because they pants wetting cowards, and are afraid that Republicans will say something bad about them, and are busy on their knees to their wealthy donors.

They want their tax cuts for the rich, even though it is ruinously bad policy, and even worse politics, because they are hopeless wimps.

*He was a first round draft pick for the Washington Redskins, and turned out to be, according to ESPN, the the 4th biggest NFL Draft bust of all time, as well as being the whip for the Blue Dog Caucus in the House of Representations.

Economics (Real Estate) Update

No Comments
Click for full size

Fasten your seat belts……it’s going to be a bumpy night!

Really, it’s a real estate news update today, with home prices dropping for the 2nd straight month in July, as did Moody’s commercial property price index, and, despite historically low rates, home loan applications fell again, showing that the current housing market is weakening following the expiration of the tax credits.

Additionally, we have the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index continuing to show contraction, which indicates that prospects in the next 6-12 months are not great either.

It’s not all bad news though, as August housing starts rose sharply over the previous month, though as the official census figures show, this is just a anemic 2% year over year gain. (PDF)

Non-Combat Role My Ass, Part XVII

No Comments

Barack Obama’s claim that combat troops are of Iraq is a lie, as is made clear by a letter from a soldier:

“The reason I’m sending this out is because I have had a few people ask if I left Iraq early because all of the combat troops are out of Iraq and I wanted to let everyone know the real deal.

Take our Brigade for example. We were originally called a HBCT (Heavy Brigade Combat Team). Well, since Obama said he would pull all of the “combat” troops out by Aug, all they did before we left was change our name from a HBCT to an AAB (Advise and Assist Brigade). We have the same personnel/equipment layout as before and are doing the same missions. The ONLY difference is that they changed our name from a HBCT to an AAB and that’s how we pulled all of the ‘combat’ troops out.

There are other Brigades just like ours that are doing the same missions that are still over here. So anyway now you know the REAL story, so that’s why I’m not coming back early.”

Obama does not realize that being commander-in-chief of the military means to command.

Unfortunately, he is dealing with a military which, like pretty much all militaries, is culturally incapable of seeing a conflict beyond the prism of “winning”, and so by compromising, we simply dig ourselves deeper.

More Federal Reserve Kremlinology

No Comments

The FOMC met and issued its report, and their policy remained unchanged, though they did say that they might engage in more quantitative easing (printing money) because they believe that the economy may be trending down.

Basically, they won’t do anything this time around, but they might later, even though, “Measures of underlying inflation are currently at levels somewhat below those the Committee judges most consistent, over the longer run, with its mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability.”

So, unemployment is higher than their mandate allows, and inflation is lower than their mandate allows, and so they will do ……… nothing at all for now.

As Atrios so aptly noted, “The sociopaths at the Fed have spoken.” (Emphasis mine)

It’s the only way you can describe their behavior: They are essentially saying that we are in, or entering, a recessionary spiral, but doing their job is hard.

That being said, the US dollar weakened following the fed statement.

The full Fed statement is after the break:

Press Release
Federal Reserve Press Release

Release Date: September 21, 2010
For immediate release

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in August indicates that the pace of recovery in output and employment has slowed in recent months. Household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Business spending on equipment and software is rising, though less rapidly than earlier in the year, while investment in nonresidential structures continues to be weak. Employers remain reluctant to add to payrolls. Housing starts are at a depressed level. Bank lending has continued to contract, but at a reduced rate in recent months. The Committee anticipates a gradual return to higher levels of resource utilization in a context of price stability, although the pace of economic recovery is likely to be modest in the near term.

Measures of underlying inflation are currently at levels somewhat below those the Committee judges most consistent, over the longer run, with its mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability. With substantial resource slack continuing to restrain cost pressures and longer-term inflation expectations stable, inflation is likely to remain subdued for some time before rising to levels the Committee considers consistent with its mandate.

The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period. The Committee also will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings.

The Committee will continue to monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and is prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed to support the economic recovery and to return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its mandate.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; James Bullard; Elizabeth A. Duke; Sandra Pianalto; Eric S. Rosengren; Daniel K. Tarullo; and Kevin M. Warsh.

Voting against the policy was Thomas M. Hoenig, who judged that the economy continues to recover at a moderate pace. Accordingly, he believed that continuing to express the expectation of exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period was no longer warranted and will lead to future imbalances that undermine stable long-run growth. In addition, given economic and financial conditions, Mr. Hoenig did not believe that continuing to reinvest principal payments from its securities holdings was required to support the Committee’s policy objectives.

Larry Summers to Resign After November Elections

No Comments

It looks like Obama needed to make some change, though it looks like they will be changes for the worse, because they are looking to replace him as director of Obama’s National Economic Council with someone who is even more of a wall street insider than Summers:

Administration officials are weighing whether to put a prominent corporate executive in the NEC director’s job to counter criticism that the administration is anti-business, one person familiar with White House discussions said. White House aides are also eager to name a woman to serve in a high-level position, two people said.…

Because appeasing whining bankers is job 1 at the White House, I guess, because we are all just little people.

… They also are concerned about finding someone with Summers’ experience and stature, one person said.

Well, if they want someone who can match Summers’ record of being right, and his record of moral rectitude, I might suggest Dick Cheney, Ben Stein, or Vlad Tepes.

As I have said many times, remember, the Cossacks work for the Czar, and I think that the basic problem here is top down, not bottom up.